Housing Benefit to Private Landlords Set To Rise by £440m a Year

The amount of housing benefit paid to private landlords will increase by £440m a year due to the ‘rapid’ growth in buy to let lending, GMB is warning. A new study said that if the growth in the number of new buy to let homes continues at its current rate, there will be 80,000 more claimants by the end of 2015. ‘This growth in buy to let lending will give rise to even more claims for housing benefit to pay the rents quite apart from pricing would be home owners out of the market,’ said Kamaljeet Jandu, GMB national officer for equality. ‘This latest growth will likely add another 20,000 new claimants in a single quarter and 80,000 over the year. The annual cost next year to taxpayers will be at least £440m.’ Read more on the LocalGov website.